DIRECTIONS: Take Fortification Street westbound, cross Bailey Avenue and make an immediate left on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The clinic will be on your right.

WHY: Following a five-month renovation that doubled its size to 5,152 square feet, the Jackson Free Clinic will officially reopen on Saturday. The expansion will allow the JFC volunteer staff to serve more patients. It also allows the addition of new services, including dental services, occupational therapy and physical therapy.

The expansion was accomplished with revenue donated by Health Management Associates Inc. the University of Mississippi Medical Center and many other sources, UMMC student fundraising, donated services from architects Richard McNeel and Melissa Edwards at JBMH Architects in downtown Jackson, and at-cost construction from contractor Ray Floyd of Jackson-based Fountain Construction and its subcontractors.

The 12-year-old clinic is a not-for-profit that serves adult patients who don’t have health insurance and can’t otherwise afford care. School of Medicine students staff the clinic under the supervision of licensed physician volunteers from the Jackson community. All the clinic’s services are free. On a yearly budget of about $30,000, the clinic provides examinations, medications, lab work, diagnostic services and health education for patients. While both the clinic’s volunteer base and patient load have grown through the past decade, its facilities had not until this renovation and expansion.